Over a third of lower-income Latino adults living with children had frequent anxiety or depressive symptoms this past fall and winter, according to a new analysis from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families. Of those 37% who experience symptoms, many do not receive mental health services to assist them. “This includes 33 percent of Latino adults who reported frequent anxiety symptoms, 26 percent who reported frequent depressive symptoms, and 22 percent who reported both; these rates are statistically higher than seen among their higher-income Latino peers,” according to the research center’s data. Let’s explore the factors that contribute to these symptoms and how Latinos can seek the resources and help that they need.
What Causes These Mental ...
Researchers at UC Davis Health and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) are working on a new study to predict who is most at risk for dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. The study includes creating a health ‘scorecard’ for dementia risk. Here’s what you need to know about the study and how you can participate.
Study Goal
UT Health San Antonio will be the clinical research site for the Diverse Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (Diverse VCID) study. Data will be collected through brain scans, genetics, and other key biomarkers. “Putting these very different pieces of information together, our ultimate goal is to really come up with a risk profile,” Dr. Charles DeCarli, Professor of Neurology and ...
We all know that some viruses make us sick, like norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea; rhinovirus, which causes the common cold; and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But how do these viruses make us sick? What happens when a virus gets into the body? Our bodies are made up of billions of microscopic building blocks, called cells. On the outside of our cells, there are tiny parts that stick out. Those tiny parts are made of proteins that act like a lock on a door. If you have the right “key” for the “lock,” then you can get into the cell. Some virus cells can have tiny parts that stick out on their outsides, too. Those tiny parts can work like a “false key” that can fit the “lock” to some types of our bodies’ cells. It’s not an exact ...
Latino or Hispanic-serving colleges and universities have risen 94% in the last 10 years, from 293 in 2010 to 569 in 2020, according to a recent report by Excelencia in Education. Now 20 of the largest Latino-serving colleges are forming a new alliance to double Latino doctorates and increase the number of Latino professors by 20% by 2030. The Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, announced June 2022, aims to help increase Latino representation in higher education. Latinos make up less than 6% of US doctoral students and only 5% of college faculty. “Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States and are now 17% of the workforce, yet they continue to be underrepresented in higher education,” Dr. Heather Wilson, Chair of the Alliance, said in a news ...
Ventilation is the movement of air in and out of spaces. Good ventilation can help remove things from the air that we don’t want to breathe in, such as chemicals and dust – and small virus particles released by someone who is infected with a respiratory virus, like SARS-CoV-2. “The fewer virus particles in the air, the less likely you are to breathe them in, or that the virus particles will land on your eyes or a surface that you might touch,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series.
The Importance of Air Changes
Good ventilation involves air changes, which means that the air in a room is replaced with new or filtered ...
In the bar or club, it's easy to find people smoking and drinking. What would happen if health workers walked into these venues to ask cigarette smokers — face to face — to join a quit-smoking service on their phone? To find out, UT Health San Antonio researchers and an ad agency trained "street teams" to go into bars and clubs in San Antonio, Texas, to talk to patrons about joining Quitxt, a bilingual service that uses text messages to help young Latino adults quit smoking. Street teams talked with 3,923 people and enrolled 335 to Quitxt over 10 days in March 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted work, according to a new study in the journal JMIR Formative Research. "Direct outreach in bars and clubs is a useful method for connecting young adult cigarette smokers with ...
The cost of childcare in the US has skyrocketed – up to 46% – since 2018, and the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame. At the same time, Americans are also struggling to afford baby formula, menstrual hygiene products, gas, and groceries. Women, especially low-income women, are most affected by rising childcare costs. Women of nearly all races and ethnicities experience higher rates of poverty than men, with the highest rates among minority women, such as Latinas, according to the Center for American Progress. While Latinas represent 18.1% of all women in the US population, they constitute 27.1% of women in poverty.
What Does Rising Childcare Costs Mean for Latinas?
The cost of childcare, which is rising in nearly all states due to pandemic worker shortages and childcare ...
The COVID-19 saga continues as the virus continues to mutate, and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) identify new subvariants of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The CDC is studying a new subvariant, called BA.2.12.1, to determine how it spreads and how well existing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 work against it. “[BA.2.12.1 and other subvariants of Omicron] are more contagious with more immune escape, and they are driving a lot of the increases in infection that we’re seeing across the nation right now,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator, according to Vox. Latinos, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 hardships, are still struggling to recover from the initial hit of the ...
Latinos represent less than 10% of volunteers in cancer clinical trials. The lack of Latinos in clinical trials makes it harder for researchers to find treatments tailored for this group — which makes up 18.5% of the U.S. population and a diversity of heritages. This is why Drs. Amelie G. Ramirez and Patricia Chalela of UT Health San Antonio identified barriers and strategies to boost Latino representation in clinical trials in a new commentary in JCO Oncology Practice. It will take more than simply raising awareness of clinical trials to everyone. "To achieve equitable participation of Latinos and other underrepresented groups in clinical research, we need comprehensive approaches that address social and contextual barriers to participation," said Ramirez, leader of the ...
